


Love

by AngelynMoon



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: F/M, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Mythology - Freeform, Nothing is beautiful Everything Hurts, Requited Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:53:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23278894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelynMoon/pseuds/AngelynMoon
Summary: Aphrodite is the Goddess of Love.As always let me know about tags.
Relationships: Aphrodite/Ares, Aphrodite/Hephaestus, Ares/Hephaestus
Comments: 7
Kudos: 52





	1. Aphrodite

**Author's Note:**

> In this story I am using the mythology where Aphrodite is Zeus' daughter, in some myths however she was born from seafoam after Cronus castrated Uranus.

Love is not gentle, it is not kind. Love is jealous and selfish and cruel.

Aphrodite laughs at those that kill in her name, because she is love and love has no mercy.

She courts war because they go hand in hand.

Ares takes her into his bed because to love is to make war but it is not Aphrodite that Ares loves.

Aphrodite is the Goddess of Love, she knows what everyone she encounters holds dearest to their heart, she knows that Ares lets her slip into his bed because of the one she was given to.

She knows that War's heart has ever belonged to the one who burns, the forger of weapons and more.

War does not love her as she loves War.

But love is selfish and cruel and jealous, she is so much like her Father in that way, she sees what she wants and takes it no matter the collateral, the damage and death she leaves in her wake.

Love is not gentle, nor is it kind. It takes and takes and it twists and breaks.

Love can take the strongest man and make him weak. It can torture the kindest woman and make her kill.

Love has no mercy for those that find themselves within her grasp.

She takes War in his bed, holds him down and leaves her mark on his skin, she gouges the already battle scared skin and claims him as hers.

Beneath her Ares submits to her, he lets her mark and scrap and closes his eyes.

It is not her that he imagines above him.

Aphrodite is Love, she can see a person's innermost desires as long as love is there and Ares has so much love for the vision he conjures that she cannot help the deep wounds she leaves on his skin.

But Ares is War and he takes what he can, accepts her touch in lieu of the one he truly desires if only because the one he wants has touched her.

But love is selfish and greedy, she takes War to her bed and controls him with his desire, she takes and takes and does not share.

Hephaestus takes her touch like a man who deserves nothing, she tempts him with small caresses and kind words.

This one refuses her bed, he, like no other, knows how cruel love is, how devastating she can be, how selfish.

He takes her touch because he must, he too does not think of her when she gives him the barest of affection.

Aphrodite takes after her Father, she wants and so she takes.

Love is cruel, love is jealous, she is not gentle or kind.

Aphrodite will always take Ares to her bed, Love and War go hand in hand after all.

And when she takes Ares to her bed once more, when she forces him beneath her and sees his eyes clench closed to imagine Hephaestus above him instead she smirks.

Aphrodite is the Goddess of love, she knows the inner most desires of all she encounters as long as love is present.

But Aphrodite is her Father's daughter, she takes what she wants and has no care for the destruction she leaves in her wake.

And love is not gentle, she is not kind, she is cruel and greedy and selfish.

And so Aphrodite takes Ares to her bed and she smirks and does not tell him that Hephaestus loves him too.

\--

A/n: just a little thought i had.

And well Aphrodite is love but love is not always a good thing so i wanted to explore an Aphrodite that was more like Zeus than anything, (in some myths Aphrodite is a daughter of Zeus in others she is born from seafoam when Uranus' dick hits the ocean after Cronus castrates him).

I wanted a Goddess of love that takes what she wants and does not care for consequence.


	2. Hephaestus

He makes weapons for his love, he does not know what else to do, he cannot tell him.

Even if he gained the courage to do so Aphrodite would never allow them to be together.

Love is anything but kind.

No, love is too much of her Father, cold and cruel and selfish. Love is possessive of what she counts as hers and both Ares and Hephaestus belong to her.

Only Hephaestus understands such.

He is glad that Aphrodite does not seek his bed, it is enough that he must suffer her harsh grip, it is much too tight upon him to be mistaken as kindness.

He almost wishes she held him in more standing than an object she owns if only to spare Ares her touch upon him. Hephaestus cannot hold his gaze on the marks she leaves on War's skin.

It angers him, but he can do nothing, he is the only one that sees Aphrodite for what she is.

All the others see her as kind, soft, she is love, she is gentle and sweet and beautiful.

But love is hard, she is ice and anger, possessive and jealous, she takes and takes and give nothing in return.

Love is too much of her father's daughter and not enough of her mother's.

Hephaestus makes weapons of War, leaves them at his heart's door and does not think of them further, he cannot, he dares not hope they might be more than a glance of devotion and love.

Hephaestus knows Love, he knows that she knows, she teases him with the knowledge that Ares loves him back, tells him how he thinks of him when she takes him inside her, when she scores her nails down his chest.

She laughs at his pain, she always had, even before she found this new torture.

She knows that Hephaestus understands that she will never let them be, she will kill him first.

Hephaestus is disposable in her eyes, it is Ares she will keep, War and Love are two peas in a pod as Hephaestus is the other half of Ares' coin, War does not exist without weapons and weapons do not exist without War, though Hephaestus is so much more than just a simple weaponsmaker.

Hephaestus would be able to go on without War but War would be half of himself without Hephaestus.

Aphrodite does not care about that, she knows what would happen and she does not care.

Love is not kind, she is not sweet, she does not care, she takes what she wants and smiles at the destruction she fosters.

Love is possessive and jealous, her hand lingers on Ares' shoulder, her fingers leave bruises on Hephaestus' and all the while she smiles sweetly to her father and dazzles them with her beauty.

Only Hephaestus sees the ugly, rotten core that beauty hides.

And across the skies Hephaestus' eyes meet Ares' and Aphrodite snarls and drags her lover to his bed and Hephaestus goes to his forge and creates another weapon and sets it aside.

He wishes he was brave enough to use it. Wishes he was brave enough to free them both from Love's possession.

Love is not soft, it is not gentle, Love is angry and jealous and cruel, she takes and breaks and laughs at the blood under her nails and in her teeth and she reminds Hephaestus that it is his face Ares imagines as he spills inside of her.

And Aphrodite laughs and laughs as Hephaestus cries at her cruelty.

He is the only one that is allowed to see Aphrodite's truth.

This is not a kindness.

\---

A/n: was inspired to write Hephaestus' version of love.

Part of me wants to do an Ares chapter but I don't know if i'll be inspired to do it or if I'll even be able to get in to the right mindset for it considering how much of a consent Issue i've made Aphrodite and Ares' relationship.

But I mean greek pantheon has Zeus so it's pretty much 'what is consent?'

Aphrodite's mother is Dione in this story and her father is Zeus.


	3. Ares

He might have loved her once, if he did Ares does not remember.

He did not mean to fall out of love with the beautiful woman in his bed, did not mean to build a fire with the one she is wed to, he does not remember when the fire was started, when the first sparks caught flame in his heart.

Some days he wishes it never had.

It is a cold lonely fire, painful and destructive. 

Ares cannot compare the two, Aphrodite is lovely, her face is the moon and the sun in turns, the warmth of the sun on his skin, the glow of the moon to guide his path, Ares would rather stumble blindly in darkness than suffer her light.

Making love to Aphrodite is too much like battle, it is one he does not win because she is not the one he wants. She leaves her scratches on his skin, scars him as her own. She leaves his bed with his blood on her tongue and beneath her nails and his seed coating her thighs.

She leaves Ares in his bed exhausted and hollow, wishing for another's touch against his skin, another's body held in his arms.

When he wakes there will be a weapon at his door and Ares will carry it until Aphrodite tosses it from his belt as she strips him bare, as she claims him anew.

Ares is so tired of Aphrodite bringing War to his bed.

He cannot help but think how gentle it'd be with another, the rough but soft touch of a creationist, a caress that he could hardly feel, the ghost of a touch through his hair rather than a tight grip, possessive and grounding when Ares does not wish to be grounded.

Making love to Aphrodite is a battle, one Ares never wins, he wondered if he ever had.

Somehow he knows he didn't, that he never will.

He will spend lifetimes battling Aphrodite in his bed and wishing he did not have to bring War to it but Aphrodite allows nothing less.

And Ares closes his eyes as Aphrodite takes him inside, fingers tight on too narrow hips and he imagines another in her place.

The goddess smirks against his skin as she drags her nails down over his chest.

Ares wonders just what battle it is that he is losing, or perhaps he's just lost the War instead.

\---

A/n: i honestly never was going to write a happy ending for Ares and Hephaestus, it just doesn't work in the context of these ficlets, I'm sorry.

I just really had an urge to do sort of Dark/evil Aphrodite, she's such and easy character to make soft but Love isn't always soft, it's resilient and lingering, it's angry and cruel and pain as much as it's sweet and soft and gentle, it's possessive and jealous and destructive and ugly just as much as it's beautiful and kind and growth.

Really love is a kind of duality that you don't get in other feelings, and i wanted to explore the darker aspects of love and used Aphrodite to do it.

Thank you for reading.


End file.
